I caught most of the town hall meeting last night on C Span. It was great. Should be mandatory for all civics classes. Kids would learn how democracy works. Some people with a vote yell and scream and say silly things and other people try to make sense out of it all. They only get one vote also. Let's hope the majority uses common sense and not passionate b.s.
Barney Frank is my new hero. He handled the nut jobs with ease and candor. Wish I had a Rep like him. Mine is a straight Republican country club church kind of guy. No hope for him to vote for health care reform. "Free market" is where it's at. Trust the market. Of course he has health care paid for by we the people.

President Obama was right. The media loves a ruckus. They focused solely on Barney Frank's aggressive response to this woman, who was clearly a nut case. The only takeaway from this story seemed to be that someone on the Democratic side finally showed some backbone and stood up to these town hall screamers.

But wait a minute. She made one valid point: Death panels are a scary idea, and nobody should be in favor of them.

So why hasn't the media (and for that matter, Barney Frank) acknowledged that the kind of death panels this woman mentioned are a bad idea, and then pointed out that THEY EXIST TODAY IN AMERICA in the form of INSURANCE COMPANIES!

Obama warned during the campaign of "distractions." And all the talk of Barney Frank's clever comeback has distracted the discussion away from the real problem -- that the Hitler-esque "death panels" aren't in any of the health care reform proposals, BUT *DO* EXIST TODAY IN THE FORM OF INSURANCE COMPANIES!

C'mon, people. Wake up!

LaRouche supporters have been disrupting Congressional town hall meetings around the country with offensive Holocaust imagery, check out http://contemporaryantisemitism.blogspot.com/2009/08/lyndon-larouche-holocaust-imagery-and.html for more examples

Barney Frank is a warrior and my hero. He is NEVER at a loss for words and if he just can't reason with someone intractable, he has a storehouse of funny put-downs that take the edge of the argument. Thanks to Barney for fighting so hard and to Jon for giving him a format.

May I suggest an experiment?
To gauge the credulity of television viewers.
Ask Fox to insert a small intentionally erroneous item into each broadcast, and request their viewers to report them. To act as a check sum, if you will.
If these are routinely picked up, it will demonstrate the alertness of their audience.
If they are not detected at all then, well, you may draw your own conclusions.

This is my point.

Everyone has the right to voice their opinion. But do so "respectfully" and with truths. We all have that right, but we also have the right to disagree. .

The woman asked a stupid question and made an incorrect statement ... so he answered it with the correct response.

Plus if these people have insurance they should move out of the way for people who have no concern.
I have a great insurance, however I have to pay a co-pay that is 20 for the GP and 30 for specialist and 50-100 for hospital services. They have constantly said that if you are satisfied with your plan then stick with it.

Guess what I don't even want to pay that, so how can someone say that they have to meet a $5k deductible and be fine with that. That is outrageous. But guess what I get excellent service.

But my daughter, granddaughter and one of my neices have no insurance. Therefore, get out of the way if you are happy with your insurance. NO one is saying that you have to change it.

I do have a problem with people who are not here legally getting every kind of benefit yet my family members can just barely get anything and we have generations that have paid in taxes and served this country in the military service.

When Griff's voice changes, he might be taken seriously.

You folks need to do your homework. She is one of your "wacko" own. The woman at the Barney Frank town hall who was holding an Obama-as-Hitler and asked why Barney Frank supports Obama's Nazi health care policy is a Lyndon LaRouche Democrat. She is not a conservative. A lot of these town hall people protesting are Democrats showing up at their own congressman's office. They have legitimate concerns, like many of us, about an extremely inefficient government taking over our health care. A government that can send letters to the private industry (the insurance companies, I know that many of you love to demonize) demanding sensitive and propreitary information (illegal search and seizure?) can do the same thing to its private citizens. That means all of you. The Obama administration is out of control. They are being corrupted by power. A lot of these town hall people protesting are Democrats showing up at their own congressman's office

Translation:

Barney Frank has no idea why he supports it.

Barney Frank is refreshing -- So different from so many political hacks who carefully frame every sentence. Barney Frank simply talks and tells it as he sees it.

I used his line today, I'm sort of sorry to say, on one of the blogs: On what planet do you reside?
I apologize. I'm not Barney Frank and I didn't have to put up with what he did.

I watched a longer clip from a different angle. He also got frustrated with those who asked a question about the legislation, he indicated what it contained in relation to the question and then the response was that he was wrong. One small businessman complained that the Obama Administration had not done anything for small businesses. Guess he did not realize that the last administration and Republican Administrations in general never did much for small business over the years, other than using them for excuses to not do something and also to support actions that really only helped large business. But what really got me was the antis in the crowd jumped on Obama for having raised their taxes. When Barney said the administration hadn't, a sizeable number in the audience pointed to the increases that had been implemented by the State of Massachusetts. He asked if they knew the difference between State and Federal governments - it was clear that he could not believe what he had to put up with.

Jon Stewart is God.

John knocked it outa the park tonight, fantastic interview.

3 weeks off might kill me.

That woman has joined Palin (and Fox anchors) as the world's laughing stock and poster children of the ignorance and plain stupidity that plagues a section of America's society.

Hearing the question, I* was afraid I was having an acid flashback. But LaRouchies never looked that good back in the '70's!